


Mirage

by RumblingJazz (neoculture_dorkology)



Series: Origins [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: First Meetings, Human Ratchet, Humanformers, Mer Megatronus, Mer Mirage, Merformers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 13:13:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14309412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neoculture_dorkology/pseuds/RumblingJazz
Summary: Mirage meets Megatronus and Ratchet.





	Mirage

Bleeding from innumerable lacerations, the injured Mer struck out for shore. He'd be safer on land than in the water. Other Mer and other aquatic predators were more dangerous to him when in this state than land-beasts were. Land-beasts he could fend off. 

He knew it wouldn't be long before he started to become disoriented and dizzy, and it certainly wouldn't be long before he was sniffed out by another Mer or perhaps a shark... or an even larger predator. The blue-white Mer inwardly shuddered. Why was it, that in such circumstances, his mind went to the worst-case scenario? 

A soft vibration went through the water, sending the chills of fear rippling over the Mer's skin and scales. _That_ was a bad sign; the vibration was that caused by a Mer's hunting call. Sure, the hunting Mer could be far off, but healthy Mer traveled great distances quite quickly - and injured Mer didn't stand a chance against them. The blue-white Mer had no misconceptions of what would happen, should he be caught up with.

It was survival instinct that pushed him onto the shore, his tail and fins shrinking away into blue hair and a similarly-blue skirt. The skirt was merely something for modesty in the event a human discovered him, since it was well-known that humans were bothered by nudity. The Mer chuffed, amused with himself for being worried about bothering humans when death was on his heels. He struggled to his feet and staggered along the beach, one hand clasped over the deepest wound in his side. Blood stained his fingers, but the Mer tried to pay it no mind. He was in bad shape; that much he would admit, though it stung his pride. _One_ Mer had done this to him. That was even more wounding than the physical injuries. The blue-white Mer was one of the strongest warriors in his cluster, and despite his small size, he could usually take on two or three other Mer. 

That one, large Mer had been enough to do this to him, however. 

The blue-white Mer shuddered, fear rippling over his skin. He would have been killed, if he hadn't managed to get a claw in the other Mer's eye. That had been enough to get him to release the small Mer long enough for him to escape. He didn't even know if his large assailant had bothered to follow him; he may have retreated, to have his own wound tended to. His eye would never see again, however.

He would be a one-eyed Mer - and if he couldn't adapt, he would die. Such was the way of the wild, and the blue-white Mer did not pity him.

The blue-white Mer stilled. All around him was the overwhelming stench of another Mer - he was certainly not alone on the beach, and the scent was an unfamiliar one. It was certainly not the scent of an ally, or a member of the blue-white Mer's cluster. Instincts told the injured Mer to flee, but he couldn't tell where the other Mer was, and what direction it would be safe to flee in. The scent was all around him, heavy in the air. It was almost as though a Mer had marked this area of the beach as his territory...

His thoughts were interrupted when a heavy body slammed into him, pinning him against damp sand. Sharp claws pressed against his throat, his attacker's other hand forcing the blue-white Mer's head down to touch aforementioned sand. The scent was suffocating, emanating from the large body above him. 

The small Mer whimpered. 

For a few agonizing moments, the large Mer held him against the sand. Then he let go and stood, leaning down to turn the smaller Mer over to study him with critical crimson eyes. He was dressed entirely in human clothing, but the necklace of shark teeth and Mer claws around his neck, as well as the scent, identified him as a Mer. 

"Identify yourself," the human-dressed Mer rumbled. 

" _Unseen-Current-Swims_." 

"Mirage, then." The word was foreign to the blue-white Mer. "I am  _Killer-of-Sharks-Pool-Protector_." He knelt down beside the smaller Mer, and lifted him with ease. 

"What are you doing?" 

"Taking you to  _Heals-With-Anger_." 

 

* * *

 

The blue-white Mer wasn't sure when he'd lost consciousness, but he woke laying on something soft, a white _thing_ pulled and draped over his body. He sat up and trilled, the sound bouncing back at him from the four walls of the room. He tilted his head, confused that he wasn't in the sea, and pulled away the white thing to reveal his land-form. 

Ahhhh. The memories rushed back to him, the Mer's eyes gliding over himself as though to ensure he was alive and well. His injuries had been stitched up, with what looked like the threads used by those who dwelled on the land. He had to be in the care of the humans - the Mer who had dressed in human clothes must have brought him to the land-dwellers. There were no heavy-metal-traps or soft-cutting-web-traps on him to indicate that he was a captive, but the Mer knew that humans had other methods of trapping his kind. His own sire had escaped from land-dwellers. 

Part of one of the walls flew open, and the Mer yelped in surprise. His gaze snapped to the rectangle of space left by the open-wall-piece, and settled on Killer-of-Sharks-Pool-Protector, who was accompanied by a red-headed male who had to be a human. 

The two garbled at one another in what must have been a human language, and the blue-white Mer tilted his head at them. What were they saying? 

" _Unseen-Current-Swims_ , this is _Heals-With-Anger_ ," the large Mer explained. "He will call you Mirage." 

That unfamiliar sound again! If the blue-white Mer had been in his base form, his head fins would have flared wide. As it was, he merely stared, lips parted, at the other Mer and his human companion.

The human irritably garbled at the large Mer, who garbled back just as irritably before he turned back to the injured Mer. "Mirage is a vague translation of your name, so that the humans have something to call you. To them, I am known as Megatronus. _Heals-With-Anger_ is Ratchet." 

"Mi...rage?" the blue-white Mer blinked. 

Ratchet garbled more, the word _Mirage_ slipping across his tongue more than once. 

Megatronus nodded. "Yes. Mirage. Are you feeling unwell?" 

Mirage grimaced. "I feel as though I was torn apart and pieced back together,"  _which I suppose I was,_ "but other than that I am not unwell. Please give He- please give Rah-chit my thanks." 

Megatronus laughed. "We're going to have to work on your pronunciation, and then your vocabulary." He turned to the human, and presumably relayed Mirage's message. The redhead garbled back, and Megatronus turned to Mirage once more. "He says not to mention it, he couldn't turn away from a soul in need. This is a place of healing. You are safe here, from... whoever did that to you." 

"I do not know his identity, but he moved like venom in the vein. He was... bad kelp. Poison." 

Megatronus nodded again. "I am sure that he was."

Ratchet garbled something else, and Megatronus turned to Mirage to translate again.

"Welcome to the Iacon Mer and Human Health and Acclimation Center, Mirage."

**Author's Note:**

> yeaaah this turned out badly.


End file.
